Fellow Prisoners
by mosylu
Summary: Flash & Co have all been kidnapped and are being held with no idea what their captors want or when they might be rescued. They are surprisingly okay with this. Westallen, Killervibe, ridiculous domestic fluff.


Iris looked up from her magazine. "Oh, you got kidnapped, too?"

"Yep," Caitlin said, pulling off her coat and settling on the couch. "Pass me one of those, would you?"

Iris rooted around in her stack and handed over a copy of _People._

"Kind of them to provide reading material," Caitlin said. She kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs up under her, opening up her magazine.

"Excellently trashy reading material, yet."

They settled back into the couch, idly flipping pages.

"You know how long this will take?" Caitlin asked after a moment.

"I imagine they'll let us out sooner or later."

"Mmmm."

They compared notes on the celebrity gossip. Caitlin cooed over the casting news from her favorite tv show. Iris pointed out one of the new male characters, who apparently had a wicked shirt allergy, much to their shared approval.

When the door opened again, they both looked up.

"About time you got here," Iris said as Cisco and Barry came clumping down the stairs.

"Yeah, they had to find us first," Barry said, glancing over his shoulder as the door shut and locked behind them.

"Do you know what this is all about?" Cisco asked. "I asked and they wouldn't say."

"Not a clue." Iris waved them to the couch. "Settle in, I don't know how long this will take. They provided reading material."

"That was kind," Barry said.

"Maaaan, these are all gossip mags," Cisco grumbled.

"Don't pretend like you're not interested," Caitlin said, and handed him one with the new Star Trek cast on the cover. He sat down next to her, putting his feet up on the table.

Barry only managed a few pages of glossy celebrity news before his head slumped onto Iris's shoulder and he began snoring. She patted his hair and turned a page.

"Aww," Caitlin said. "Another long night?"

"Yeah. I never thought I'd see the day that the Flash was tired of running around Central City, but when your nine-month-old won't fall asleep except at four hundred fifty miles an hour … he's logged a lot of miles."

"I wonder why four fifty exactly?" Caitlin mused.

"I don't know but it might run in the family. Dad used to have to drive me around for hours when I was a baby to get me to fall asleep." Iris fanned herself with the magazine, and Caitlin held up a hand. A cool breeze fanned Iris for a moment, and she smiled her thanks. "Maybe this - " she waved her hand to indicate their situation, "is because they feel guilty. I mean, they all did it to us at one point."

"Mmmmm," Caitlin said doubtfully.

"Have you got a better theory?"

"No," Caitlin said, tossing her magazine aside. "But as much as I'd like to believe it, the only time they'll ever feel guilty about that is when they have babies of their own."

"Shhhhh," Iris said. "Bare's got this whole father-of-a-teenage-girl angst right now. Don't even breathe that thought."

"Not to mention _I've_ only got like four more years of sound sleep, max," Cisco said.

"Excuse me," Caitlin said, "but I happen to think she is particularly level-headed for ten."

"Yeah, I can't see any daughter of Caitlin's ever going off the rails," Iris said.

"But she's my kid, too." Cisco made a comically terrified face and asked Caitlin, "You got a pencil?"

She dug in her pocket and passed him one. He took it and did a few of the crossword clues.

Caitlin reached up and pressed her knuckles into a knot at the base of her neck, grimacing. "Sweetie, can you - "

He stuck the pencil behind his ear and cupped the back of her neck, pressing his lightly vibrating fingers into the exact right spot. She sighed and smiled, and he smiled back. "Good?"'

"Always."

He shifted and put his arm around her shoulder, so she could lean into his side.

"Four across is Pennsylvania," she said.

"Since when does Pennsylvania have a B in it?"

"It doesn't, but three down is wrong."

"Is not."

"Fine, just try making it work."

He scowled at the crossword. After a moment, he erased it. She was kind enough to hide her smirk.

Some time later, the door opened. "Okay, you can come out!"

Barry woke with a slight snort, then blinked and ran his hand through his hair. "Already?"

Iris kissed his cheek. "You were asleep, honey. Come on. Let's go see what the big surprise is."

They climbed the stairs up into the living room, which was decorated with balloons and streamers in red, yellow, blue, white, and black. Stars were stuck all over the ceiling and walls.

"Wow!" Barry said. "You guys. This looks great."

"Yeah?" Don asked, his smile spreading over his face. "Ouch, Jo-Jo - "

"Awesome," Iris said, cupping his face and smiling into his eyes before reaching for the baby, squirming out of his brother's arms.

Dawn sidled in between her parents and murmured, "We went normal speed so Rebecca could help."

Barry put his arm around her shoulders and snuggled her close. "Thank you, sweetie." To Don, he added, "I know it's not easy."

Don shrugged and said, "It was okay."

Rebecca grabbed her parents' hands. "Look! I did the banner."

"It looks awesome, Bequita." Cisco kissed the top of her head.

Caitlin wrapped her arms around her daughter's shoulders. "Did you fly up there to tack it up?"

"I didn't fall once!"

"It looks so even. Your practice is really paying off."

"We have cake!" Don said. "We're getting it now."

"Cake! Yes! And drinks!" Rebecca squirmed out of her mother's arms and trotted after them.

Cisco angled his head to read the banner. He was a little biased, but it was a really good banner - the letters even and brightly colored, the sparkling stars perfectly drawn. How he and Caitlin had gotten an artistic daughter, he honestly wasn't sure. One of those mysteries of DNA.

"Guys, am I missing something here? What's a Star Day?" he muttered to the other adults.

Iris looked around the room, then pulled out her phone and checked something. Her mouth rounded into an O. "I think … I think they wrote Happy Star Day because they couldn't fit Happy Particle Accelerator Explosion Day onto one banner," she said quietly.

Caitlin gasped.

"Whoa," Barry said. "That's - that's today."

Iris nodded. "Twenty years."

They stood staring at the decorations. Jo-Jo started eating his mother's hair, and Barry reached over to tug it out of his son's mouth.

"I never could have pictured actually celebrating this," Caitlin said, taking Cisco's hand. He squeezed it.

"So much bad - but we got so much good out of it," Iris said.

"Well, I'll drink to that," Cisco said. "Whatever it is they've whipped up for us to drink."

Barry looked over his shoulder to where the kids bickered as they carried out a sheet cake and several bottles of violently colored soda pop.

"Wowwww, that looks delicious," he said, a little too happily, of a sheet cake gobbed with frosting, crusted with candy stars and in between all of that, decorated with rather badly drawn superhero logos. Clearly Rebecca had not been in charge of the cake.

"Oh, we need something to cut it," Iris said, starting for the kitchen.

"I've got it!" Dawn said a little too quickly, and in a rush of wind, was away and back with a knife.

Iris raised a brow.

"Don't go in there, Mom," Dawn said quietly. "Just trust me on that."

Iris raised her other brow.

"It's okay! It's okay. Really." Don gave her his most innocent look. "We'll fix it."

"I hope so."

"After cake?" Dawn said, giving her mother her best angel-baby eyes.

Iris held her hand out. "Okay. After cake."

FINIS


End file.
